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Mr Krabs
Karkinos was one of the most destructive Kaiju ever recorded. The Kaiju smashed its way across the Pacific Islands and the South Chilean coast and destroyed two Jaegers before finally being brought down by a triple team drop consisting of Toa Pacific, Puma Real and Vulcan Specter. The damage from the attack was only exacerbated by the fact that a enormous volcanic eruption had occurred just a week earlier, making the Pacific cities vulnerable. Physical Features Karkinos was one of the largest CAT IVs on record, measuring around 91 metres high, and 128 metres across. The Kaiju's immense weight (6,089 tons) meant that it was quite lumbering in a straight line, but surprisingly maneuverable in close quarters and on rough terrain thanks to its eight spiked legs, positioned close to the ground to give it excellent balance and distribute its weight. These legs could be detached if they attained too much damage or were hindering its movement. Karkinos was clad in rusty red chitinous armour, metres thick in places, but heaviest around the claws, back and head. Its back somewhat resembled a mountain ridge in appearance, and was similar in texture. The Kaiju's head was small but well protected, with no neck, and so had to move its entire body to be able to see its targets. This put it at a notable disadvantage when fighting multiple enemies, if not for its significant defenses. If an opponent got too close, Karkinos primary weapons were anything but concealed. Its claws made those of the CAT II Onibaba's weak by comparison, with a titanic crushing force of 200,000 pounds per square inch, compared with Onibaba's 50,000. This was enough to rip and tear away the armour of virtually any Jaeger in operation at the time. The claws themselves were large and durable enough to be used as shields in melee or to protect from ranged attacks, each being nearly the size of the Kaijus entire body. The last weapon in the Kaiju's lethal arsenal was well concealed. The blood of large Kaiju was often very hot, due to the creatures immense body heat. But Karkinos was capable of super-heating small amounts of its blood to around 1,000 degrees Celsius, and could expel it out of small pores in its joints. The spray was toxic, and hot enough to melt metals and ignite flammable materials. Never Over Never Over is the general name given to this event, as an unusual lull in Kaiju attacks for the last few months prior to the disaster had given much of the world hope, that perhaps the monstrous alien creatures had given up on their destructive quest. They had not. An Inconvenient Catastrophe At 12:17 am, on the 1st of April 2023, an island exploded. Mehetia, a small, idyllic volcanic peak in French Polynesia, slowly began to self destruct. Starting at 6:00 am, the volcano awakened from a slumber that had lasted two millennia, aside from small tremors and undersea explosions. Mehetia was remote, so the first report of the eruption was from satellite images showing the vast ashen plume rising 16 km and drifting eastwards over the Pacific. By 9:25 am, ash was falling in Apia and Nuku'Alofa 4 inches thick, and by 10:00, it had reached Suva, and Port Vila not long after that. As the volcano continued to vent its toxic products into the stratosphere, its cavernous magma chamber was steadily emptying, and could no longer support the 4.4 km, mostly submerged mountain above it. The seabed surrounding the island began to crack and buckle until, the mountain fell through, along with millions of tons of seawater, into the active magma chamber. The resulting phreatomagmatic blast unleashed energy equivalent to 5,000 nuclear explosions, much stronger than the Mount Saint Helens eruption nearly 43 years earlier, and was heard from Samoa, 2,500 km away. The superheated plume of seawater, gases, magma and ash towered, easily visible from Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora, a demonic colossus come to wreak havoc on the tropical paradises of the South Pacific. It was 1:00 am when the first pyroclastic surges tore into Tahitis east coast, ravaging it of life. Though Tahiti was ultimately spared, its distance meaning that it could not be impacted any further by the hellish ocean-going avalanches. A greater threat was coming. The ocean slowly began to pull back from the coasts of the Society Islands, and the residents, wise they were in the workings of the sea, knew exactly what this meant. Tsunami 80 metres high slammed into Tahiti, scouring the low lying cities and resorts and capsizing fleets of evacuation ships still leaving their moors. The waves continued on through Bora Bora, Moorea, and hundreds of smaller atolls and islets were completely swallowed whole by the sea, not possessing any elevation to speak of. The tiny nation of Tuvalu, wiped from existence, only 3,000 of its 11,000 strong population had already been evacuated after the Tsunami Early Warning Alarm had been broadcast. By 7:00 am, Mehetias eruption was over, only an underwater caldera and gigantic plume of steam remained. Nothing of the island still existed. But immense damage had been wrought across the Pacific Ocean, with coastal cities of the Americas moderately damaged by tidal waves ranging from 4-7 metres. Hawaii had been struck by waves ranging from 10-15 metres, with damage wrought to Hilo and Honolulu. Guam was also wounded, afflicted with 17 metre high waves, as well as Australias east coast, though thankfully the unfinished AK Wall had deflected most of the wave, leaving minor damage to Sydney. New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Fiji, Tokevalu, French Polynesia, these were the worst hit areas. In total, the Mehetia disaster had claimed 113,000 lives, making it one of the most deadly volcanic eruptions in recorded history. But as the world mourned, one critical consequence would serve to make this situation even worse. The primary K-Watch monitoring station had been destroyed during the disaster. If a Kaiju emerged in the following month, no one would know until it made landfall. The interval between attacks had grown shorter in the last 3 years, from months to weeks. However the last attack had happened last year in December. It had seemed that the Kaiju just gave up, as this was the longest pause in attacks since 2015. Whilst some gave thought to rebuild K-Watch' facility, the state of unease around the lack of attacks had been replaced by that of global mourning and reconstruction. This was to prove unwise. An Untimely Appearance 7th April, 2023 was the beginning of a new disaster that would shake the PPDC to its core. Deep below the West Pacific, the Breach stirred for the first time in several months. But this time, none of the equipment that usually detected the Kaiju was there, it was still a month out from being redeployed along with a refurbished K-Watch facility. The Kaiju burst out of the portal, its legs gripping onto the Marianas seabed. Its malevolent creators orders surfaced in its animalistic mind, and so the titanic crustacean climbed. The continental shelf was of little notice to its diligence. It could not swim, it was far too heavy for that. Various large sea creatures met their end, instantly killed by the force of the Kaijus claws, and their corpse brought to the mouth to be consumed. Something so large needed energy, and the lesser creatures of the deep were sustenance enough. The first report caught the PPDC completely off guard. It was such a nightmare scenario that it had to be a hoax, most likely spread by belligerent Kaiju Cultists hoping for extra followers. But as grainy, shaky images and videos streamed across social media of an enormous Kaiju emerging off the coast of Pohnpei, (the capital island of Micronesia), nightmare became reality. Perhaps if only to relieve the tension, the PPDC then finally decided to officially christen the CAT IV: Karkinos. Pohnpei had taken heavy damage from the earlier tsunamis, and so Mr Krabs moved on after sweeping his beady eyes over the area, not wasting its energy to destroy that which had already been leveled. As Mr Krabs departed, the rest of the already damaged Pacific cities were put on maximum alert. The CAT IV could attack anywhere, and they wouldn't know until it was upon them. Almost immediately, Striker Eureka, Vulcan Specter, Titan Valor and Toa Pacific were scrambled from the Sydney Shatterdome, and were spread out across roughly 1,000 miles of the South Pacific, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rogue Kaiju before it struck again. Mr Krabs' Unquenchable Blood Lust Karkinos wandered clumsily across the Pacific seafloor. The main method that Kaiju used to locate areas of human population was to track the streams of pollution and refuse that all population centres release to a certain extent. Landfall: Concepcion to Valdivia Shadow of the Andes Aftermath Notes and References * The art is owned by Eddie Del Rio on Artstation.Category:Kaiju Category:Category IV Category:First Kaiju War